280 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [ Vou. eT 
the immunity from danger there would be if the sewage outlet were 
removed to a distance of six miles. 
fT make one further quotation from Mr. Rust’s report. “I feel satisfied 
from the results of the experiments that the currents are caused by the 
winds. They change direction as the wind changes, although sometimes 
after a sudden shifting of the wind, the upper and lower currents have 
sometimes different directions. By the attached tables you will see that 
during this fall there has been a great number of days in which the 
wind blew from an easterly direction, and to this is to be accounted the 
large percentage of floats which drifted in the direction of the intake 
pipe. From the Observatory reports we find that the prevailing winds 
are from a westerly direction. The Hon. W. McAlpine and Messrs 
Hering and Gray, in their reports on the Trunk Sewer, considered that 
the sewage could safely be discharged into the lake east of the intake 
piped, 
With the above views I entirely agree and am of the opinion that the 
mouth of the intake pipe isin about the best possible position, as it is 
the nearest point to the shore where a depth of seventy feet of water can 
be reached; and double that depth is found within a few hundred yards 
to the South. The force of this will be seen when you refer back to that 
part of my paper where I drew your attention to the fact that the pre- 
vailing direction of the currents was about parallel with the coast line. 
_Now_ as the mouth of the intake is less than half a mile from the 
shore of the island, it stands to reason that if we take our outlet pipe 
a mile from the shore line we get our sewage a half a mile outside of 
the range of the inlet pipe. Herein, I believe, is perfect safety. 
And when we consider the immense advantage it will be to us to 
get clean rid of the whole foul mass of sewage without creating plague 
spots in our fair city, in the shape of sewage farms or what is worse, 
precipitating works without regard to the enormous cost of such works 
we are constrained to say, “’Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.” 
There is yet required to be made a careful and thorough investigation 
into the extent to which diffusion takes place in large bodies of water 
and its effects on sewage. The Council, on recommendation of last 
year’s Trunk Sewer Committee, are partly pledged to undertake that 
work this year. 
In conclusion I beg to say, that as the Institute was instrumental 
in having these valuable preliminary investigations made by the Council, 
I hope the members of the Institute, individually, as well as collectively, 
will continue to use their influence to help on the great work of a perfect 
system of sewage disposal, for which Toronto is languishing. 
